The Secret Society by Jean Ferry
(with thanks to the late Bill Siebert / Alobar Greywalker)
Joseph K—, around his twentieth year, learned of the existence of a secret, very secret society. Truth be told, it is unlike any other association of its kind. Some have a very hard time being admitted. Many who wish ardently to do so will never succeed. Others, however, are members without even knowing it. One is, by the way, never entirely sure of being a member; many people believe themselves a part of this secret society when they aren’t at all. Although they have been initiated, they are even less a part of it than many men unaware of its existence. In fact, they were subjected to the trials of a fake initiation, meant to distract those unworthy of actually being initiated. But It is never revealed—not to the most genuine members, not even to those who have reached the highest ranks in this society’s hierarchy—whether their successive initiations are valid or not. It may even happen that a member who has attained, through a series of genuine initiations, an actual rank in the normal fashion, is then subjected without warning only to fake initiations. Whether it is better to be admitted to a low but authentic rank, or to hold an exalted but illusory position, is a subject of endless debate among members. At any rate, none can be sure of the stability of their rank.
In fact the situation is even more complicated, for certain applicants are admitted to the highest ranks without undergoing any trials, and others without even ever being notified. Actually, it is not even necessary to apply; some have received very advanced initiations without even knowing the secret society exists.
The powers of its higher members are limitless; they carry within a powerful emanation of the secret society. For instance, their mere presence suffices, even should they not show themselves, to turn a innocent gathering like a concert or a birthday dinner into a meeting of the secret society. It is their duty to draw up secret reports on all the meetings they attend, reports pored over by other members of the same rank; thus there is a perpetual exchange of reports among members, which allows the secret society’s highest authorities to keep the situation well in hand.
However high or far one’s initiation goes, it never goes so far as to reveal the purpose of the secret society to the initiate. Still, there are always traitors, and for some time now it has been no mystery to anyone that this purpose is maintaining secrecy.
Joseph K— was quite terrified to learn this secret society was so powerful, so many-limbed, that he might easily shake hands with its most powerful member without knowing it. But as bad luck would have it, he lost his first-class metro ticket one morning after a troubled night’s sleep. This misfortune was the first link in a chain of muddled, contradictory circumstances that put him in contact with the secret society. Later, in order to protect himself, he was forced to take the necessary steps toward being admitted into this formidable organization. All this happened quite some time ago, and how far he has gotten in these attempts remains unknown.
(translated by Edward Gauvin)